c/o Universal Pictures

This review contains spoilers for “Happy Death Day” and “Happy Death Day 2U.”

It’s birthday season, Wesleyan. 9 of the 10 most common birthdays take place this month. I’m sure most of us know at least three or four people who celebrate their birth in September, and every weekend comes with another set of birthday pre-games, parties, and picnics. Yesterday was someone’s birthday, tomorrow will be too, and the day after that, and again and again, and so on and so on. You could say it almost feels as though the days are…repeating.

As I sat in my hilltop wood frame, mindlessly scrolling through the seemingly endless streaming possibilities, a vision flashed into my mind. It was of Jessica Rothe’s character Tree in the hit film “Happy Death Day 2U” (2019)—a sequel to what I can only hope will become a cult classic, “Happy Death Day” (2017). I saw so clearly a scene etched into the foundational stones of my mind: Tree shouting at her ex-boyfriend that he is gay before marching onward, stunning the poor closet case speechless.

Readers, I’m a simple man. I know when God is sending me a sign. That’s all it took for me to pull up the first “Happy Death Day” and press play. As the Universal logo looped three times before playing in its entirety, I settled in to rewatch one of my favorite films.

If you haven’t watched “Happy Death Day,” I’ll give you a rundown. The movie follows Tree (short for Teresa) on her birthday—Monday, Sept. 18, 2017—as we are introduced to her life at Bayfield University. She is mean to the guy who took care of her the night before (Carter, played by Israel Broussard), she’s sleeping with her married professor, and she’s all-around inconsiderate and selfish. She even throws away a homemade cupcake her roommate Lori (Ruby Modine) gives her, sarcastically saying it has too many carbs.

Tree is not likable. She’s shallow, unkind, and condescending, and you almost wish someone would do something about it. Luckily, your wish will be granted! On her way to a party that night, a killer in a baby face mask stabs her in the head, killing her. Short movie, huh?

Except, all of a sudden, she wakes up again, and everything is the exact same. She’s in Carter’s room, she wanders home, discards Lori’s cupcake, goes to sleep with her professor—it’s all the same. She’s pretty weirded out by this, but then when the baby-faced killer takes her out again, she wakes up, and it is the same day for the third time.

The rest of the film is dedicated to her trying to break this cycle of deaths—with some extremely comical outcomes—and at the end we learn that the killer all along was…Lori! She gave her a poisoned cupcake and has been chasing her down, trying to kill her for sleeping with the professor (not because it’s bad or wrong, but because Lori wants to sleep with him instead).

It’s a hilarious thriller, but it’s something deeper, too. Every “Groundhog Day”-style narrative includes some sort of theme of a protagonist facing their imperfections, improving on them, and becoming a better person; this film is no different. By the end, Tree has grown to appreciate other people much more and to think a bit beyond herself and act less selfish.

But her arc wasn’t about that at all. Or at least, not directly. You see, part of the reason Tree was being so mean and bitter on her birthday in particular is because she shared it with her recently deceased mother. Now, every year, the grief of losing her mom just comes pouring back in, and instead of facing it, she shuts everything out. She ignores her dad, with whom she is supposed to have lunch, because she can’t face the pain of an empty seat at the table. She’s built up such a strong protective shell that now every day just feels…the same.

Ooh, it’s a metaphor, who would’ve thought?

What I find interesting about this movie is that while, yes, the problem is inside Tree, it’s not that she’s a fundamentally bad person who needs to improve; rather, she’s a hurt person who needs to heal. She needs to make room for people in her life like her dad or Carter (whom she ends up dating) and allow herself to feel the joy of love, even if it comes with the pain of grief.

I can’t even begin to talk about the second movie here—to make a long story short, the loop restarts, except now she’s been kicked into a parallel universe where her mom is alive, and she has to choose either to return to a world without her mother or subject an alternate version of herself to that life. And also she screams “YOU ARE GAY!” at her ex.

I cannot recommend “Happy Death Day” enough, dear reader. As the Halloween season picks up and birthday season dies down, this is the perfect time to go to Peacock and watch it. Whether it’s your birthday, your friends’ birthdays, or your campus opp’s birthday, celebrate the right way. You might learn something about yourself while watching this poor girl get massacred over and over. I know I sure did.

Sam Hilton can be reached at shilton@wesleyan.edu.